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Interest in the induction and measurement of positive affective states in non-human animals is increasing. Here, we used a test of cognitive (judgement) bias, based on the finding that individuals experiencing different affective states judge ambiguous stimuli differently, to measure whether a...

Although nonhuman primates have highly developed visual cognitive abilities, they have few opportunities to exert such abilities in captivity. Video presentation can reproduce multiple features of the complex, real, visual world. Therefore, video presentation can be expected to act as...

Maternal stress effects on offspring development have been studied largely in rodents and primates, and to a lesser extent in farm animals. Potential lack of knowledge concerning prenatal stress on farm animals is regrettable because they are frequently subjected to a variety of husbandry...

Surprisingly few studies have measured cortisol levels in captive primates using samples collected during everyday life to gauge which activities and circumstances might induce or reduce stress. Much of what is behaviourally identifiable as stress may not to be reflected in physiological stress,...

Animal emotions are central to the concept of animal welfare. So far, emotions have been investigated in animal welfare science as within-individual phenomena, i.e. coordinating mechanisms that guide the animal to take appropriate action. However, emotions include an important social dimension....

Improving the home cages of laboratory mice by environmental enrichment has been widely used to reduce cage stereotypies and anxiety-related behaviour in behavioural tests. However, enrichment studies differ substantially in type, complexity and variation of enrichments. Therefore, it is unclear...

The detection of judgement biases may improve welfare evaluations by measuring the cognitive component, particularly the valence, of affective states. Judgement biases have been successfully demonstrated in various laboratory animals but only recently in sheep. Chronic stressors have been found...

Wallowing, i.e. coating the body surface with mud, is a natural behaviour of pigs, commonly observed in feral pigs and wild boar, but rarely provided for in current housing systems for domestic pigs. Furthermore, in welfare science the subject has not been receiving much attention. This paper...

Castration of male calves destined for beef production is a common livestock management practice in the United States amounting to approximately 7 million procedures per year. Recently there has been renewed interest in identifying methods to reduce pain associated with dehorning and castration....

Regurgitation and reingestion (R/R) is an abnormal behavior observed in great apes analogous to rumination syndrome in humans. A majority of the research on R/R in non-human primates has focused on gorillas and chimpanzees with little information relating to other species that also engage in this...

Regrouping female rabbits in group-housing systems is common management practice in rabbit breeding, which may, however, induce agonistic interactions resulting in social stress and severe injuries. Here we compared two methods of regrouping female rabbits with respect to their effects on...

Cattle are grazing animals so it is generally assumed that pasture is a welfare friendly system as it is natural and allows the expression of normal behaviour, which may be restricted indoors. However, high yielding dairy cows may not be able to fulfil their nutritional demands from grass alone...

Information about the welfare and husbandry of pet and laboratory fish is scarce although millions of fish are sold in pet shops and used in laboratory research every year. Inadequate housing conditions can cause behavioural problems also in fish since they are complex animals with sophisticated...

Motivation tests were conducted to assess preference strength for diet form and a cage enrichment device by Orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazona amazonica) held in individual cages, N=10. Each cage was equipped with two trough-type feeders, one of which had a hinged lid that required lifting to...

Handling of laboratory rats can increase physiological and emotional stress, leading to a fearful relationship with humans. We hypothesized that the affective quality of handling techniques used during routine care influences the animals’ fear of humans. We assessed responses of male...

Preference tests are a widely used method in animal welfare science but the influence of specific methodologies has not been widely investigated, and methods are often selected arbitrarily. In these experiments we assessed the environmental preferences of 72 individual laying hens, where...

Domestic animals may be frequently exposed to situations in which they witness the distress or pain of conspecifics and the extent to which they are affected by this will depend on their capacity for empathy. Empathy encompasses two partially distinct sets of processes concerned with the...

Lying behaviour is a useful indicator of cow comfort, but can be time consuming to measure. Data loggers are commonly used to automatically record behavioural activity but may influence the animal's behaviour. We investigated the effect of a new model of the IceTag data logger (IceTag Sensor,...

Worldwide there is large variation in the age at which young macaques destined for use in research are permanently separated from their mothers, and in the subsequent social environment in which they are reared. This stems from variation in minimum weaning ages and rearing practices in guidelines...

Group nests in alternative housing systems for laying hens primarily fulfil the hen's needs for seclusion and protection. Commercial nests used in Switzerland are built according to the provisions of the Swiss Animal Welfare Legislation. However, nest types can differ in aspects, such as floor...